Strangest of Creatures
by Jackisback
Summary: A DG obsession story. He d seen enough, heard enough, restrained himself in time. She d made him almost express himself, almost made him confess one of his darkest secrets, and that made her more dangerous than he could have ever imagined.
1. Chapter 1

Strangest of Creatures

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I claim nothing but the situations I put these characters in.

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It was not unusual to see the students of Hogwarts milling about in the courtyard on a lazy saturday. Nor was it unusual to see them paired off in groups and gaggles and pairs. What was strikingly strange was that a fair blonde head and a bright red one were missing from the scene. No one seemed to notice though, as if no one particularly cared about the two that were absent. The once prominent Malfoy heir was in the most unlikeliest of places, he was in the library watching a certain red head. Now this fascination wasn´t particularly new nor was it that unusual. It had all happened a few weeks ago when Ginny Weasley had gotten lost in the dungeons.

...

She was sure that she had dropped her essay somewhere near the potions room, and quickly searched for it. Unfortunately she didnt pay any attention to where see was and where she was going, searching rather desperatly for that bit of parchment. So that when she found herself in a dark corridor with rather unfamiliar portraits gazing at her, she stopped in her tracks and started muttering to herself, about the foolishness of losing things and getting lost, and how dreadfully confusing the dungeons happened to be. She didn´t panic and she didn´t cry. The dark had long ago stopped scaring her, she knew that there were worse things out there than the dark, and the dungeons weren´t that scary when you´d had things like Dark Lords in your head.

Instead Ginny listened for any sounds of someone else down here, there was only the sound of water dripping, the sighs and groans of the stone walls. It was rather peacful down here, wasn´t it. Ginny sighed and took out her wand, she was a witch after all and it would have been stupid of her to get lost and cry when she could just say˝point me˝and viola, her wand spun and stopped pointing to her right, back up to where she needed to go. Now, if only she hadn´t heard the sounds of shuffling feet to her left, perhaps she would have gone back to the Gryffindor common room, but for all her common sense, she was a curious one, and since this part of the dungeons were so unused, she wondered who could possibly be down here.

Curiously and silently, she walked around the corner, to her surprise she found non other than Draco Malfoy entering an unused classroom. His hair was rather messy, not at all its usual slicked back self. The glimpse she´d gotten of him before her entered the room had been quick, yet she had still been able to notice that his tie was crooked, and that the smirk that he usually wore was gone, replaced by the strangest of expressions. It looked as if something was bothering him, and all the meaness had left him, he had looked rather sad, and flustered. It was such a strange sight that Ginny´s legs were moving in his direction without her having to tell them to follow him.

He hadn´t seen her, or noticed her, so that when she slipped in to the dark and dank classroom, he was startled when the door groaned and closed, leaving a certain Weasley big eyed and just the slightest bit nervous at being caught, in the room with him.

˝Weasley, what are you doing here?˝ His expression had changed from startled to sneering in a matter of seconds. He had murder in his eyes.

˝I, got lost...˝ said Ginny, not the least bit of fear in her voice, the curiosity was still present and try as he might he just didn´t scare her.

˝Little Weasels gotten herself lost, has she.˝ He tried for snarky, and mean, wanting to frighten her, to get her to leave. Except that nothing mean came out of his mouth, nothing insulting, nothing cruel.

She took a step forward, he watched her warily. ˝You look a mess.˝ She said. ˝Whats it to you Weasley, go on, run off to your red and gold tower, MOVE!˝ He growled, eyes flashing.

˝I have as much right to be here as you do, Malfoy.˝ She said it more cruelly than she meant to, out of habit really. She took another step closer to him, his eyes following her, his eyes that had gone back to that strange tired look. The grey swirling with more emotion than she had ever seen in them.

He took a step back, before he caught himself, before he had a chance to remember who she was, who he was. As if giving up the struggle, the pretense of being a Malfoy, he turned around, his shoulders hunched, his hands shaking. ˝Look Weasley, just leave, okay, leave.˝ His voice sounded nothing like his usual self. If he had been crueller, if he had insulted her, perhaps she would have left, but he wasn´t and he didn´t.

˝Why?...˝ She couldn´t help but say, this curiosity was so unlike her, so forward, she appeared to have the upper hand in this, strangest of situations and for once she would pester and badger until her curiosity was sated.

˝...˝He didn´t say anything, he barely even heard her. He blatently ignored her, his mind elsewhere.

She sighed, loudly in the silent classroom. ˝You know Malfoy, the least you could do is answer me.˝

˝The least I could do is nothing.˝His head turned slightly towards her, so that a stray hair lay across his eyes, and she noticed that though it was dark, his white blonde hair shimmered as if lit by moon light. She moved closer to him, so that she was standing right behind him, closer than ever before. He was the strangest creature, she couldn´t help but think, yes, the strangest creature she had ever seen.

˝What are you doing, didn´t I tell you to leave.˝He turned around so fast she wobbled on her feet. Then he was advancing, the rage back in his voice, forcing her to move backwards until she hit the door with her back. Her eyes widened, a twinge of fear in them, suddenly she noticed that she was alone, with Malfoy, in an unused classroom far far away from anyone.

˝And I was, and I am.˝She opened the door and ran.


	2. Chapter 2

Strangest of Creatures

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I claim nothing but the situations I put these characters in.

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After the incident in the dungeons, Draco payed quite a bit of attention to the littlest Weasely. Watching her in the Great Hall, following her with his eyes whenever she happened to be in sight. He couldn´t figure out why she had been so unlike herself. She hadn´t been scared or meak, he hated to admit to himself but they´d switched places for those horrid few minutes. He wanted to know why.

He´d noticed that while she acted as she always had, there was something different about her, a calmness that no teenage girl should have. As if she´d matured into a women over the span of a few years, instead of a decade. Though none of their peers seemed to understand or even notice this change in her, he saw in her the same thing that he saw in himself. He had long ago stopped being young, and innocent at least in aspects of pain and wisdom. Of all the people that he´d encountered she had surprised him, and he couldn´t phantom why, or what had forced her to grow up so suddenly. So he watched her, and listened, and quite unwittingly started treating her not as a Weasley or a Gryffindor, but as a girl worth his notice.

...

Malfoy was in the most unlikeliest of places. Not that it was strange to see him in the library, what was strange was that it was a saturday and instead of being outside with his Slytherin friends, he was in the library watching a certain Gryffindor. Though it appeared that she had forgotten the incident in the dungeons, he had not, and his own curiousity being peeked, he had decided that today while everyone else was outside enjoying themselves that he would track down Ginny Weasley and ask her what excatly had gotten into her that awful day in the dungeons.

He was peeking, though Malfoys were above such things, this Malfoy found himself peeking, of all things, at a Weasley, he had been peeking only for an hour, an hour where he had noticed that the library was silent except for the page turning and scribbling of Ginny Weasley. Not even Madam Pince was here, opting instead to enjoy a day without students somewhere else on the grounds, trusting that the students of Hogwarts would not be in need of her faculties.

Deciding that the Weasley girl had finally settled in, and that no one would be coming to disturb them, he walked out from behind the bookshelf and headed straight for the girl that had intrigued him for the past week. Malfoy did not sneer or smirk as he approached her, rather, a calm expression lay on his face and the smallest tendril of nervousness, which of course would be denied if ever mentioned.

Ginny looked up as she heard his footsteps approach her. She had of course noticed him watching her since that enlightening day in the dungeons. She thought it wise to ignore him when he was watching her, the rest of the time she thought him a puzzle, and watched him in return. For he had never answered her question, why had he been so unMalfoyish? She had run of course, it would have been foolish to stay, and Ginny Weasley was anything but foolish, anymore.

She noticed that his eyes were swirling again, a rainstorm of grey, intent upon her. It was rather cat and mouse of him to corner her all alone in the abandoned library, it would be weak of her to do anything but stay sitting in her chair looking at him, waiting.

When he had finally made it to her table, he stayed standing there for a moment, thinking, watching. ˝Why?˝ he asked, eyes locked on hers. His hands were at his sides, back straight, legs firmly planted, every muscle clenched in anticipation of her answer.

˝Why what?˝ Perhaps she should have answered him, but he was impossible, full of some tension, ready to explode. Her heart beat a little faster, she had wondered why he hadn´t said or done something after the incident, she had anticipated him at any moment, and now that he was finally here, she just wanted to watch him that much longer.

The calmness slipping, his hands started to shake just the littlest bit. ˝When did little Ginny Weasley get the courage to follow a DeathEater into the darkest dungeon to ask him ´why´?˝ He managed to say, collecting his thoughts, stilling his breathing.

˝You don´t look like a DeathEater, you don´t even act like one, I was just curious as to why not?˝ She looked him in the eyes, looked at how her words affected him, how his fingers twitched at her boldness. It was rather bold of her, and she didn´t think that it was Gryffindor courage, it was more like she didn´t have the time for such childish games.

He didn´t need to explain himself to her, and yet as she looked at him in earnest, he couldn´t help but want to tell her why, but she hadn´t yet earned that from him. ˝A moment of weakness.˝He told her, that is all that it had been, a moment in which he hadn´t had the will to keep pretending.

˝I thought that Malfoys were never weak.˝ She commented, readying herself for his outburst, but it never came.

"Our strength grows out of our weaknesses." He said, the strangest of smiles fluttering on his features for the briefest of glances, so that she thought that she had imagined it. Then he was walking away, she made to get up, to stop him, but stopped herself watching his back, the graceful way he moved.

He´d seen enough, heard enough, restrained himself in time. She´d made him almost express himself, almost made him confess one of his darkest secrets, and that made her more dangerous than he could have ever imagined.

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"Our strength grows out of our weaknesses" Ralph Waldo Emerson: American Poet, Lecturer and Essayist, 1803-1882


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